Member Training Guide Baby Step 7 – Follow Up On The Books You Sent And Get The Listing

Member Training Guide Baby Step 7 – Follow Up On The Books You Sent And Get The Listing Marven
2017-12-09T11:29:28+00:00

(The strategy you use to follow up will depend on whom received your books. I have separate instructions for how to follow up on the different types of leads. Scroll down to see the different instructions.)

You must approach FSBOs the right way. (Most agents do it the wrong way.)

It’s easy to separate yourself from other agents. (I’ll show you my 3 specific strategies below.)

The key to getting the listing is follow-up.

Let’s get started on these steps:

It’s easy to list FSBOs when you understand how they think.

For sale by owners do not understand how challenging it is to sell a home.

Most FSBOs do a horrible job marketing their house. They don’t get as much activity as a listed house gets.

They just think, “Oh, realtors just throw a sign in the yard. They don’t do anything. I’m just going to put up a sign, list my house on Zillow, and it’s going to sell so fast.”

And maybe that is the case — if you get lucky.

But for most people in a realistic market — or if you’re trying to get a fair price for your house — it’s not easy to sell a house for top dollar.

We’re realtors. We understand this.

We understand the challenges, and that’s why we do such a good job when we market a house. The FSBO doesn’t get it.

FSBOs, even those who do decent marketing, still don’t get as much activity as a listed house does because they don’t have access to as many buyers.

They’re not in the same network that realtors are in, and that’s why realtors, a lot of times, get more money for the houses that they sell.

You provide a valuable, no-cost service.

It doesn’t cost FSBOs anything to hire you, and I’ll explain why in just a moment.

You basically get to hire a realtor for free. The realtor takes on all of the liability. The realtor does all the work. The realtor understands the process.

The realtor reduces the risk, and you get the same amount of money in your pocket at the end of the day. Here’s why:

In most cases, a realtor is going to sell a house for more money.

We do a better job. We understand disclosures and inspections and lenders and appraisals and surveys and all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into selling a house that a FSBO doesn’t understand.

We’ve got checklists to make sure things are handled properly.

We know what we’re doing.

We understand the process.

The FSBO doesn’t know much.

If they hire a realtor, there’s less work for them.

We handle everything.

We meet with buyers. We deal with the contracts. We deal with the inspections. We deal with the WDO termite inspections.

If a problem comes up, we know how to fix it — or at least know how to reach someone who can.

You have a network, so you can solve problems that FSBOs will not be able to solve on their own.

You must approach FSBOs the right way.

I know lots of great agents who are tremendous at converting different types of leads, and yet, they struggle to list FSBOs.

Oftentimes, it’s because they don’t understand how to approach them the right way. You’ve got to understand how and use it in your business.

It’s easy to list FSBOs when you understand the For Sale By Owner psychology.

As I said before, owners do a horrible job at marketing their house. They think they know best and that anyone can do what you do.

I like to approach FSBOs with a nice helpful approach.

I like to show them how I can help them.

When I reach out to FSBOs, I have to show them that I’m not just here to get a listing.

I plant the seeds — show that I’m willing to help. I know that if I do that, when they do list their home, most of the time, they’re going to list it with me.

I typically:

Ask.

Offer assistance.

Show them how I can help.

Prove that I can get them more money.

In the end, most FSBOs are eventually going to give up. They’re going to give up because their house won’t sell.

Now, you may disagree with that, especially if you’re in a red hot market where a lot of the FSBOs sell.

But here’s the deal:

If you’re in a red hot market, you can get a lot of listings by raising the price because a lot of FSBOs tend to underprice their homes.

They put their house on the market for $375K, $360K, when realistically, it’s worth $400K to $420K.

If you’re in a red hot market, you also have the skills to deal with the appraisers, to know all the ins and outs of how to sell a house for what it’s realistically worth rather than what the appraisers and the FSBO might think the house is worth.

It’s up to you to show them how you can get them more money by raising the price. The higher price is going to pay for your commission.

Here’s a quick example:

I’ve done this many times in red hot markets myself.

There was a FSBO that was on the market, I think, for $220K.

I came in the door. I said, “Look, dude. You can get $235K, $240K for your house easily. Why don’t I put it in the market for $240K, and we’ll see if I can get you a little extra money?”

The house ended up selling for $235K.

I did all the work. There was less risk, less liability, and he still netted the same amount of money that he hoped to as a FSBO.

But the difference is he probably would’ve dropped his price $5, $10, $15K if a buyer had come in the door as a FSBO.

Here is a Training Video for the Alternate FSBO Follow Up Scripts (6:31)

It’s easy to separate yourself from other agents.

Offer Free Pictures.

Smart Sellers Plan.

Raise the price.

You need to separate yourself from those slick sales people who just want to get a quick listing.

You’ve got to be helpful. If you’re helpful, you’ll even get referrals.I’ve had FSBOs refer other sellers to me and gotten a listing simply because I was helpful to them. I was shocked the first time it happened. But, it’s true.

Here 3 specific strategies you can use to set yourself apart:

1. Offer free photos.

Basically, you approach the FSBO and you say, “Hey, I’d like to offer you free professional-quality pictures of your house.”

Some of them are going to think it’s crazy, but just by offering that, they’ll recognize you’re trying to help rather than take.

The Law of Reciprocity kicks in, and you’re going to get a lot of listings as a result. Not sure what we mean? Just google the Law of Reciprocity.

2. Smart Sellers Plan

Basically, the Smart Sellers Plan is where you put the house on the market and the FSBO continues to market the house themselves to see if they can sell it.

If they manage to get a buyer, you come out. You take down your sign, your lock box. They don’t pay you a dime in commission.

But if you get a buyer at a price that’s acceptable to them, then they agree to pay your commission.

Basically, what you’re doing here is making it very, very easy for them to give up on selling as a For Sale By Owner.

Ninety percent of the time, you’ll end up doing a great job marketing their house and they’re just going to stop trying to market their house For Sale By Owner. They’ll let you take over, and then it just turns into a regular listing.

Plus, there are more benefits for you.

You got to have your sign in the yard. The Zillow ad also goes to you as a listed house.

If you contact Zillow’s support department, you can ask them to transition the ad over to a for sale with a real estate agent ad versus For Sale By Owner. I’ve done that many, many times.

3. Raise the price

This one’s simple. Come in and show them how you can get more money for their house.

You’re making it easy for them to give up on the dream.

But really, I shouldn’t call it a dream — more like the illusion that they can sell their house easily for full price For Sale By Owner and not pay a real estate agent.

The key to getting the listing is follow-up.

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.

Solid consistent follow-up will beat amazing sales skills every single day of the week. I’ve seen it over and over again.

I remember I listed a FSBO where another amazing agent with great sales skills had called them and talked to them and captivated them and charmed them.

But he only called one time.

And he happened to call at a time when they weren’t ready to list their house with a realtor.

Guess who got the listing? I did – because I followed up.

What’s next?

Ok, I hoped these instructions were helpful. So, get to work and implement them. Go get your first listing!

If you implement all of these steps and still struggle to get a listing, then here’s what to do next.

First, contact our Support Department and let them know what happened. They will funnel your info to Ben Curry or one of our other trainers. And that trainer will get back to you with some help and answers.

We also have a weekly troubleshooting webinar with our trainers. They will review your situation on the webinar and help you out. So, we will do everything we can to assist you.

What to do once you get a listing?

First, you gotta celebrate that. It may not seem like a big deal to you. But, it’s a big deal to us!

So, let us know about your success. And then, it’s time to order more books. We’ve seen that once an agent gets a listing from the books, they immediately order more. Some agents order 50 books. Others order 100 books.

Remember, you get a bulk discount when you place a larger book order.The more books you order, the lower the price.

One agent immediately ordered 1,000 books to take advantage of the volume discount. He said he’ll make $11,000 on the listing he got from the books. So, it’s worth investing $3,500 to get a whole bunch more listings.

If you’ve had success using our books, then you may be eligible to receive 20 free books. Click the link below to get started on the next step.